"Border Bill" Puts Wildlife and Public Land at RiskTuesday, June 19, 2012
By: Jenny Kordick

This week, the House of Representatives will vote on a package of public lands bills, including one highly controversial bill introduced by Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) that puts wildlife and wildlife habitat near our country's borders in jeopardy.

The provision, known as the "Border Bill" in H.R.
2578 creates a 'non-compliance' zone that waives more than a dozen bedrock
conservation and environmental laws on federal public lands within 100 miles of
any U.S. land border. The laws the Customs and Border Protection could circumvent
and ignore include the Endangered Species Act, Wilderness Act and
National Environmental Policy Act.

Waiving these critical environmental protections could expose wildlife habitat to road construction, fencing, air strips, and other disruptions—permanently tarnishing and altering millions of acres wildlife depend on to thrive.

The 100 mile zone includes some of
our most cherished public lands: National Parks that attract millions of
visitors each year, Wilderness Areas that contain some of the best fishing our
country has to offer, and National Forests that are sanctuaries for wildlife.
See some of these special places in the map below.

Conservationists, hunters, anglers,
and communities on both borders are opposing this far reaching piece of
legislation. Even the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) views the bill as unnecessary and
reckless.